Investigative bureau appoints Overton

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has appointed Iain Overton, an ITN executive producer, as its first managing editor.

Overton, 36, has extensive experience in investigative reporting, working in over 50 countries on stories for both the BBC and Channel 4.

His award-winning work has included exposés of the Chinese government supplying arms in Darfur, the killing of civilians by British mercenaries in Iraq, and the global trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

Overton, who will take up his new position in November ahead of the BIJ's operational launch next year, said: "The state of investigative journalism is derelict and there is a vital need for honest information to combat distortion and spin.

"I hope to attract the best and the boldest and the most dogged in our profession to work on stories that pursue the truth and hold the powerful to account."

Elaine Potter, one of the BIJ's co-founders, said that Overton's "mission is to reinvigorate journalism in the public interest at a time when newsrooms around the world are collapsing and truth in journalism is fast disappearing."

The BIJ is a not-for-profit body set up specifically to act in the public interest. Its supporters include Harry Evans, the former Sunday Times editor and Charles Lewis, one of the pioneers of nonprofit journalism in the US throughb the Centre for Public Integrity.

It also draws upon another recent initiative, the Investigations Fund, and on the support of many of Britain's best known investigative reporters and producers.

One of its inspirations was ProPublica, which is up and running in the States.